Pain.
A dull ache exploded at the back of her head. The stench of mold and rancid food rushed into her nostrils, and Shen Weiwan abruptly opened her eyes. Above her was a peeling, mottled beam; the soot-blackened window lattice was covered with tattered paper. Even the light filtering through seemed wrapped in a lifeless gray haze, and the air was damp and cold.
She pushed herself upright, her body weak and aching. Beneath her was a hard wooden bed, covered with a thin, worn quilt whose fraying edges dug painfully into her shoulder blades. She wore a faded blue cotton garment. The coarse fabric rubbed against her neck, itchy and rough, nothing like the silk pajamas she was used to.
This wasn't her rented apartment, let alone the table laden with desserts!
She had been a twenty-first-century office worker and devoted foodie named Shen Wan. After working overtime until the early hours, she'd just ordered a feast of mango pancakes and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. She hadn't even swallowed her first bite of dessert when everything went black and she lost consciousness. Now she'd woken in a world of antique beauty, but in a place of utter ruin. "My lady! You're finally awake!"
A tearful cry struck her ears. A young girl with two buns in her hair, dressed in a coarse maid's uniform, rushed to the bedside. Her eyes were swollen like walnuts, and five distinct handprints marked her left cheek. A trace of red blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. She looked pitiful, yet defiant.
Unfamiliar memories flooded Shen Weiwan's mind, forcing their way into her soul. This was the fictional Great Sheng Dynasty, and she was a low-ranking Concubine Shen, three months into the palace and never even granted a glimpse of the emperor's face. Her father was merely a seventh-rank county magistrate in Songxi County, Jiangnan. With no influential family or connections, she had been casually thrown into a side hall of the remote Suiyu Pavilion, the cold palace's coldest corner. Yesterday, the original owner had been denied her allowance because
